10 steps for stretching meat makes it easy to save money! Learn how to stretch ground beef, chicken, and more with meals that stretch meat, like tacos and Instant pot whole chicken, and helpful tips.
So… you went grocery shopping and you bought some meat. Your spouse makes googly eyes at the ground beef and requests the best burgers for dinner. Worse yet, Mr. Crumbs sees a whole chicken and thinks we’re firing up the grill and having chicken for dinner.
One pound of meat (ground beef)? One whole chicken? Just for ONE dinner?
Oh man, if they only knew the miracles you’re about to pull off!
That single pound of ground beef can become two, if not three meals. That one chicken? I’ve got FOUR dinners planned!
Here are my tips and tricks for stretching meat, and your budget, while still eating well.
How Stretching Meat helps to save money
While I COULD splurge on a rotisserie chicken for one night’s dinner, the side effect would be more meatless nights later in the month. Our grocery budget is frugal, which means we eat our fair share of meatless meals, but we like to eat too!
In order to have more dinner WITH meat than without, we have to be creative and intentional with what we buy and what we make with it when we get home.
Stretching meat helps your grocery budget in many ways:
- You’ll spend less on meat.
- Creativity starts to kick in.
- The cuts of meat you buy will be bigger. And cheaper.
10 Steps to Stretching Meat at Home
(1) Stretch your Meat budget by Making Meat a side dish.
The right mental frame of mind is just as important as what you actually do with the meat, so let’s set the record straight: meat is not the main star of the meal. It’s a side dish, an accompaniment, that small (yet important) role in the school play.
Meat is just one of several ingredients in a dish – not the only one – so keep that in mind as you’re making dinner.
(2) How do you budget meat for stretching? Cut it yourself.
Whether it’s cutting a whole chicken into parts or roasts into steaks, do it yourself and you’ll save right off the bat. Pre-cut chicken thighs and drumsticks average 50¢ per pound MORE than a whole chicken and whole roasts are upwards of $1 per pound more!
(3) Stretch the meat by making it thinner.
Using whole cuts of meat is a treat in our house, but you can still stretch the whole cuts by making them thinner. Before cooking, pound out chicken breasts, pork chops or steaks so that they’re slightly thicker than 1/4″.
Another option is to slice the cut of meat through the middle, at least once. If you’re skilled with a knife, do it three times! (Otherwise, play it safe and stick to the pounding out method.)
(4) Save on your Meat Budget by Grinding the meat yourself.
Ground beef used to be the most affordable option for beef. Not so much anymore. Fear not, because you can make your own ground beef!
Use inexpensive cuts of meat from local farmers or pick up the clearance packages at the grocery store and use a food processor to grind it up yourself. Just like that, you’ve saved big bucks overpaying for the convenience of having the meat pre-ground for you!
The same goes with any type of meat. Turkey (bought after Thanksgiving or Christmas), marked down chicken (on or off the bone) and even pork (steaks or roasts) can all be ground at home and used in whatever recipe you’d like.
(5) Measure two cups instead of whole pounds to stretch the meat.
How many meals can you get out of a whole chicken?
We buy two whole chickens each month and would you believe that it’s possible to stretch that chicken into at least SIX different meals? And that’s just the meat – it doesn’t include making stock from the bones (tip #10 below) or even adding filler items to the chicken!
Simply roast the chicken in the oven or cook it in a slow cooker. Pick all the meat off the bones and measure it into 2-cup portions.
Do the same with beef roasts or carnitas (shredded pork). Shredded, pre-portioned meat goes a long way.
(6) Replace meat with filler – a great way to stretch ground beef and more!
No, we’re not talking about pink slime. We’re talking about beans or lentils in tacos and skillet dishes. Barley in stews and oatmeal in burgers. Even shredded zucchini or carrots!
You don’t have to add much, but it allows you to reduce the amount of meat you’re serving without sacrificing taste and quality. (See how I stretched ground beef taco meat into more than one meal!)
- For every pound of raw meat, add one cup of cooked filler.
- For each 2 cup portion of shredded chicken, add 1/4 cup of rice.
- Substitute 2 cups of your finished dish for 1 pound of ground beef or turkey called for in a recipe.
These fillers are the most common, and most affordable. Choose which to use based on the meal and what you have on hand.
- Rice
- Barley
- Oats
- Homemade breadcrumbs
- Beans (cook dry beans from scratch to save even more)
- Cooked lentils
- Potatoes
- Grated vegetables (carrot, zucchini, and squash)
(7) Choose meals and recipes that stretch meat.
Substituting 2 cups of shredded chicken into a whole-piece chicken recipe won’t cut it, so you have to choose a more appropriate recipe from the get-go. Casseroles are the most common ways to use shredded or ground meat, but here’s a list of my favorite recipes that immediately become budget-friendly by using a single 2-cup portion of meat:
- Slow Cooker Chicken & Quinoa Cacciatore
- Classic Shepherd’s Pie
- Chicken & Spinach Enchiladas
- Chicken Creole
- Buffalo Chicken and Bacon Ranch Salad
- Southwestern Salad
- Add to Autumn Rice Pilaf for a one-bowl meal
- Homemade Hot Pockets
- Any salad!
- Fajitas
- Tacos
- Stir-fry
- Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Grilled Sandwiches (1-cup portion)
- Pizza or Calzones
- Chili
- BBQ Sandwiches
- Soup
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Italian Meatballs
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Quesadillas
Tip: For slow cooker meals, prepare the meal as directed except for the meat. Add the shredded chicken at the very end, about one hour before the meal is set to be done.
(8) A simple way to stretch meat in recipes: Use less meat.
No one but your budget will notice you used only 3/4 lb instead of 1 lb in that casserole dish. And if you’ve stretched it with a hearty filler, that 3/4 lb will go even further!
The same can be said for trimming down to 1 cup of shredded chicken instead of 2 cups. You can’t do this for every dish, but you could easily use less in recipes like these:
- Soups
- Fried rice
- Grilled sandwiches
- Salads
- Quesadillas
- Spaghetti Sauces
- Sloppy Joe
(9) Stretch your Meat budget by Freezing it Correctly.
Freezer burn doesn’t alter the nutrition of food, but it can affect the taste. Once you’ve cooked your meat, stretched it with a healthy filler, and determined what to use it for, wrap it twice so it’s not freezer burned when you’re ready to thaw.
Tip: Keep your freezer organized AND save on freezer bags by portioning your meat into sandwich-size bags. Label each of those bags with the contents, then place several of these into one larger gallon-size bag. You can toss the sandwich bags but re-use the gallon one over and over.
(10) Save bones for stock.
With the meat taken care of, let’s do something with the bones. We make Instant Pot chicken stock or slow cooker homemade chicken stock because it’s hands-off and easy, but you can make it on the stove if you’d like too. And did you know you can reuse bones over and over again?! Your stock will get lighter, but it’s still nutritious!
Thanks for all the great ideas! I started looking today at ways to stretch meat because due to the Coronavirus, we are limited to how much meat we can buy and the price of hamburger has doubled!
Us too…the meat is an issue in our family/extended family… There are literally 3 families in the same home because of Carona virus (7 adults ,2 children,3 dogs 2 cats and, now 2 older teens that got left when their older sister died of the virus. The budget is to the extreme! What was for a family of 4 now feeds that many. I do enjoy the challenge though -mostly!…
At Thanks giving I buy extra turkey at rock bottom prices. I buy 12 to 15 pds for 2 people. I get about 15 meals out of it. Plus broth. I make soup, broth, turkey salad, turkey dinners and many types of casseroles…All with Turkey I bought at .48 to .69 a pd. .The cheapest form of meat in my home. I use it for 5 week months …
An excellent filler is also oatmeal which I always use in place of breadcrumbs when making hamburgers or meat loaf. No one can tell the difference, it absorbs some of the fat and is healthy.
I love this aspect of your meal planning.
Thanks Claire!
Curious if I’m making, like, tater tot hot dish with 1lb of ground beef, 1 cup peas and condensed cream of whatever, could I cut that meat in half and stretch it somehow?
Usually yes! I’d consider the texture of the dish overall (I’ve never made it personally), but the ground beef is distinct, then choose something like lentils that will retain their shape and firmness. If the beef gets mushy, feel free to use shredded veggies, oats or whatever else you have!
I make a lot of stir-frys. And it’s 90% vegetables with just enough meat to make it interesting. I can do this with either chicken of beef.
Also chicken enchiladas, retried beans make it heartier, and I mix the chicken with cream cheese and seasoning to make it taste cheesier without using as much cheese.
For ground beef we eat a lot of taco salad because we can get a big thing of salad and the meat is more or an add-on.
I use finely chopped mushrooms cooked with my ground beef in chili. My mushroom-hating child never figured it out. 🙂 It looks like the ground beef!
Nice!!
I was just wondering if you could get a little more specific on the “filler” part of using less beef? I’m a new cook so I’m not sure how that works! My first thought was how to use filler in burgers. I’m not sure what filler to use to keep it tasting good. I try to buy the grassfed ground beef from Aldi, so it’s more expensive to make burgers but the hubby loves them. What do I use in burgers that won’t taste weird? (I know it won’t taste the same, but I don’t want the texture to be totally weird!)
Also, do you maybe have more information on how to stretch ground beef and other types of beef? The hubby is allergic to chicken and turkey (unfortunately for our budget!) so I’m confined to beef and veggie meals (neither of us really like pork other than ribs).
Hi Heather! A great “filler” for beef would be lentils or shredded vegetables or even beans. For example, instead of making 4 burgers out of 1 pound of ground beef, you would use only 3/4 pound and add one cup of cooked filler (lentils, shredded veg, etc.) Taste depends on your preferences, but lentils are an excellent match for texture (choose green or brown lentils). Have you tried carnitas before? This is my husband’s FAVORITE recipe and he once told me he didn’t like shredded pork. 😉
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2017/01/best-slow-cooker-carnitas/
if i just had 1 pound meat, i would add 1 and a third cups of filler?
Hi Don! For one pound of meat, you add one cup of filler. Then of this mixture, use 2 cups in a dish that calls for one pound of meat; freeze the extras. I hope that clarifies!
A great filler for ground beef when making burgers is potato. I saw a recipe from WW2 era budget cooking and it called for cooked chopped potato being mixed into the meat. I tried it and didn’t even notice it.
Oh wow – great idea Kathleen!
Thank you so much for your excellent ideas! I have been desiring to feed my family organic meat but at a loss due to the significant increase in cost. With these methods I believe I just might be able to feed my family the meat I thought would never fit in the budget. THANK YOU.
You’re most welcome Jessica!
I love this discussion! It reminded me of something I heard one day at my local farmers market. A woman in line ahead of me
was choosing what grass fed meat to buy and commented that she was in the process of switching to healthier food options and had to keep telling her husband that they were going for Quality…not Quantity. I think those are great words to live by!
Another suggestion (just in case no one mentioned it already?)…when buying in bulk go ahead and invest in a vacuum food sealer. I try to use as little plastic as possible so I don’t like the non-reusable aspect of the vacuum packaging, but those systems really do an amazing job of keeping things fresh in the freezer. No matter how I try to wrap things otherwise, it is not as tight of a seal. I just try to re-use even more other things to help make up for the wasted plastic. And I have to admit that vacuum sealing is rather fun and even slightly addictive! I usually end up looking around my kitchen thinking “now, what else needs to be frozen solid?” : )
TVP beef or chicken flavor. Texturized soy protein perfect for ground meat dishes. Was introduced to it by a friend who bought it in 25#_sacks ! We get it bulk at our health food store.
I add black bean, refiried beans to my taco meat, Add, crackers, rice or oatmeal to meatloaf, add pork n beans to sloppy joe’s. you can also make sloppy taco joe’s with taco meat for a change or use spaghetti sauce and mozz cheese for Italian joes. When I make eggs for breakfast I mix eggs, meat and potatoes all together for a scramble and it makes it stretch. Breakfast casserole with bread and little meat. Desserts stretch is an apple brown betty..ground Beef, onion and peppers with cheese for a philly cheese “steak” joe..You can put it over rice to. You don’t need alot of meat in any of these just enough to flavor it. Your family will get used to less meat over time just do it slowly..
I watch sales for 99c/lb whole fryer chickens. I often find 5-6 pound chickens so there’s more meat than the precooked rotisserie ones. It’s just the 2 of us, so baking a 6lb chicken lasts for meals all week.
That’s a good idea Becky to look for the bigger chickens!! Thanks for sharing!
My problem is, my husband will DEFINITELY notice the decrease in meat. I often make meals with 2 POUNDS of ground beef and he still complains that there isn’t enough meat in the meal! And he won’t eat veggies, so things like lentil burgers and tacos are out *sigh*. Any ideas to keep him from missing that extra meat?
Honestly, I’d talk to him about it. Men are sometimes clueless when it comes to things like this. They want meat, but they don’t want to spend as much on food. They don’t realize that you can’t always have both. I’d just talk to him about the cost of what he’s wanting. If it turns out that he doesn’t care about it and is willing to pay for it, then that’s what’s best for the family!
(PS – no offense meant to any other men out there, just sharing my experience!)
Try adding stock soaked fine grains of:-)tvp….textured vegetable:protein.
I grind up mushrooms in my food processor till it’s like a ground meat texture and add it into my spaghetti, chili and Korean beef recipes. I always only use a half pound of meat in my chili and spaghetti and my hubs has no clue! I also add ground flax seed and shredded veggies to my meat loaf. I also add refried beans into my taco meat.
Another filler/stretcher that you can use is firm tofu. It’s generally cheaper than ground beef, and if you add it to a recipe like spaghetti sauce, lasagna, tacos, etc., nobody will be able to tell because the tofu takes on the flavor of whatever it’s being cooked with. You can use up to half and half meat/tofu, according to your taste. It’s also very low calorie, and FULL of healthy protein.
I love making chicken stock and want to start making veggie stock. My only problem is that I don’t have enough recipes that call for stock. Do you have a list of recipes that call for stock? Thanks for the post!
Hi Amy! 9 times out of 10 I use stock in soup, but you can use it in nearly any recipe that calls for water!
I use veggie stock in everything that calls for chicken broth/stock because it’s cheaper (I began making my stock with leftover veggie peels. Just put a gallon sized – or even quart sized – bag in the freezer and fill it with peels of veggies as you cook throughout the month.) and because the hubby is allergic to chicken! You can also use veggie stock anywhere it calls for broth. The only difference is the broth has more spices and the stock is a tiny bit stronger so you can use some water to even it out (and stretch the stock even longer!)
Whenever we have homemade tacos or burritos, I always add 2 cups of refried beans to one pound of cooked and seasoned hamburger for the six of us. If I forget to add beans, my family says “This doesn’t taste right.” When I make a pot of chili, there are more beans than meat. Gravy with some meat served over homemade bread is considered a special treat (Actually it’s what I serve when the grocery budget is empty).
Love this post. I’ve been doing this sometime and you’ve given me some great ideas. Another good filler are mushrooms! I often mix ground meet and mushrooms. I love making a whole crockpot chicken, a stir fry or chicken hash the next day and stock for soup. Just change other ingredients seasonally :).
Tiffany, Thank you for this post, it is so helpful and timely for me! Does chicken stock freeze well? I haven’t ever made it myself because I didn’t want to go to the trouble and then have it go bad before I need to use it. Thanks!
Sarah
Chicken stock (or any bone broth) freezes beautifully. I usually freeze it in 1-2 cup portions so I can just take out what I need.
Thanks for chiming in Kristen!
You can also freeze stock (chicken, beef, veggie,,,) in ice cube trays and then put the cubes in baggies in the freezer for when you need just a bit.
For extra-yummy stock I slow cook a whole stewing hen in the crock pot for the meat and use my chicken broth instead of water. That “double broth” is AMAZING! (Use the meat from the hen, which is tastier than young chicken and often cheaper, for any recipe calling for cooked chicken. It makes wonderful chicken salad, which is Mr. Marion in Savannah’s favorite.)
We had only 2 lbs of ground meat to make taco salad for 14 people. I browned the meat, added the taco seasoning, and then mixed in almost the same amount of cooked rice. It was delicious! We used 4 cans of refried beans, too, so that helped it stretch as well.
Renee, smart additions! We once had a family of 11 over for supper … add that to my family of 5 and consider that all of them were over age 12 and most of them were 12-18 years old, we had some serious teenage appetites to satisfy! Mixing refried beans, brown rice and black beans (in equal proportions) to our 3lbs of ground turkey made a scrumptious and affordable taco supper for all 16 of us!
Oh, and about 5 years ago, my husband asked why I added the seasoning to the meat after I cooked it (because the package says so?!?? was my reply) and he informed me that he has always added the spices/seasoning at the beginning so that it actually seasons the meat and doesn’t just stick to the already cooked meat. He was right and I’ve been doing it that way ever since and my chili and tacos are so much better!
Great post! I definitely will be more mindful of ways to stretch meat. I have pinned down the days that my local grocery store marks down the organic, grass-fed meat and I stock up on those days.
Happy Birthday, Tiffany!!
Thanks Deni! And great job on talking to the store about the days they mark down!!!